Foodies, pretentiousness and "a pox on your loft."

Yes, the mag's mentioned.

Wait -- you don't think a few of Powell's razor-sharp observations (well, only two or three dozen of them) are applicable to "craft" beer?

Substitute the words "beer snob" for "foodie," and have a deep think.

Curb Your Foodieism: How pretentiousness undercuts Louisville’s food scene, by Michael C. Powell (LEO Weekly)

... Additionally vexing, many people who fall somewhere on the spectrum of the creative class often toss around this term carte blanche, even though there’s nothing particularly creative about being a foodie. You’re not creating something — that’s what the chef just did, even though “foodie” is a badge worn proudly with at least a modicum of self-congratulatory importance by the same folks. Identifying as a “foodie” does not define anything about an individual, save for one simple fact — it is a public proclamation that a certain amount of disposable income is available for you to eat at trendy restaurants at will. And that, friends, is an odd thing to brag about in the same sentence as your preferred sports franchise, unless actively posturing a sense of exclusivity based on your means is worthy of note. In which case, nuts to you. A pox on your loft.

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"Upland Wheat, and an End to Pretension."

Damn it, Indiana on Tap -- stop using all caps in your headers. You're guilty of annoying the curmudgeon's style manual. You and SmartTowns.org ...

Apart from that, here's a much needed corrective to the prevailing hoarders' narcissism. There's nothing at all wrong with dependable daily treats, whether Upland's Wheat Ale or a Bell's Two Hearted.

Great article.

This Week on Tap: Upland Wheat, and an End to Pretension, by Adam T. Schick (Indiana On Tap)

Being a craft beer fan can be exhaustive. It can be a pain in the ass constantly searching for the next big thing, or spending Thanksgiving camping out in front of a liquor store waiting for an annual bottle release, or scouring the internet looking for someone who can rush ship you a can of an IPA released once every blood moon in the unmapped woods of Vermont. Personally, it often weighs on me that I can’t just drink a beer without first having to inspect its aroma, inquire about its hop profile, and chew it around in my mouth. It’s so stressful being a snob!

Trillin hilarity with ACI: "A new way of measuring pretentiousness."

The parallels with "craft" beer are immediate, stunning and entirely accurate.

ACI: A new way of measuring pretentiousness, by Calvin Trillin (Slate)

... No sooner had I ordered a drink than we had occasion to exchange glances that communicated dismay: Three men who were sitting at the other end of the room had begun discussing wine in voices that seemed intended to enlighten oenophiles who were strolling past Rockefeller Center.

The man at the end of the bar nodded in their direction and said, “Among people who think of themselves as wine connoisseurs there’s a 61 percent ACI.”

I was puzzled. “What’s an ACI?” I asked.